shall be
able to form a better estimate of the importance of the various
subjects we are about to notice.

Great Britain does not pay less than L600,000 annually for the dried
carcasses of the tiny cochineal insect, while the produce of another
small insect, that which produces the lac dye, is scarcely less
valuable. Then there are the gall nuts used for dyeing and making
black ink. Upwards of L3,000,000 is paid for barks of various kinds
for tanners' purposes, about one million for other tanning substances
and heavy dye woods, besides about L200,000 for various extracts of
tannin, such as Gambier, Cutch, Divi-divi, and Kino. The aggregate
value of the dye stuffs and gum it is difficult to estimate.

The beautiful specimens of materials imported from China, India, New
Zealand, the Continent, and other countries, and exhibited at the
Crystal Palace, proves to us that we have yet much to learn from other
nations in the art of fixing colors and obtaining brilliant dyes. The
French are much our superiors in dyeing and the production of fast and
beautiful colors. Their chemical researches and investigations are
carried out more systematically and effectively than our own. Russia
imports dyewoods and dye-stuffs to the value of five millions and a
half of silver roubles annually.

It was well observed by the Jury Reporters at the Great Exhibition,
that "a vast number of new coloring materials have been discovered or
made available, and improved modes have been devised of economically
applying those already in use; so that the dyer of the present time
employs many substances of the very existence of which his practical
predecessors were wholly ignorant. From the increased use of many of
the vegetable colors, and from the improved modes of applying the
coloring matters, a demand has naturally sprung up for various dye
stuffs; and at the present time, many of the dyeing materials of
distant countries are beginning to excite the attention of practical
men; for though they have been acquainted with many of these
substances, it is only recently that the progress of the art has
rendered their use desirable or even practicable."

It would be quite impossible, within the limits which I have assigned
myself, to make even a bare enumeration of the various plants and
trees from which coloring substances and dye stuffs can be obtained, I
must, therefore, be content to specify only a few.

The roots of some species of Lithospermum af